Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue re-opened after £2.7m face lift

Rio de Janeiro‘s Christ the Redeemer statue is back in plain sight after a four-month long £2.7 million renovation.

As it was unveiled, the monument was lit up in green and yellow to honour the Brazilian football team as it played in the World Cup.

Scaffolding had encircled the mountaintop statue that overlooks Rio’s white-sand beaches as workers repaired its eroded face and hands.

The renovation to the 125-foot Christ the Redeemer, which draws nearly two million visitors a year, was funded through public and private donations. In an effort to match the colour of the soapstone, the restorers used more than 60,000 pieces of rock from the same quarry used when the statue was erected in 1931.

In April, vandals covered the head, arms and chest of the 130-foot statue in graffiti. They spray-painted phrases like “when the cat is away, the mice play”, as well as apparent references to Rio residents who were killed or who disappeared in recent crimes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

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